I am looking at a return flight from Copenhagen to Birmingham. The flight goes from Copenhagen to Toronto, with a 3-hour layover, and then a flight to Chicago with a 1-hour layover and home to Birmingham. I am assuming I will have to go through passport control and customs when I reach Chicago (not sure if I also have to do that in Toronto).
A 1-hour layover seems really short to me if I have to go through passport control and customs. Anyone have experience when returning through Canada about whether it is realistic to make it onto that final flight in time?
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11948 posts
Toronto has US preclearance. You will do US passport control and customs in Toronto.
When you arrive at ORD, it will be no different than arriving from Dallas.
Posted by
OP
Birmingham, AL
104 posts
Excellent, Thank you for your quick answer.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6813 posts
A one-hour connection in Chicago -- even to another domestic flight, without having to clear passport control/customs -- is a bit tighter than I'd like, especially coming off of other flights (each flight and each connection increases the risk of a cumulative delay).
Big question: are there later flights going out from Chicago to Birmingham that you could be accommodated on if you misconnect in Chicago? If yes, I'd be somewhat less nervous. If no, I'd be asking myself how much I wanted to avoid a night in Chicago, what my other options might be, and how much I'd prefer each scenario.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8338 posts
You don't say when your flight is or what airline you're going to be on. Unfortunately, Shuttlesworth Airport is not the easiest airports to fly in/out of.
Have you thought about flying out of Atlanta since it's just 2 hours and 15 minutes drive from B'ham? You could catch a flight into Amsterdam that connects for a short flight up to Copenhagen. Or, in reverse.
We flew Amsterdam to Atlanta in October, and it was a very enjoyable flight. Best thing was getting to spend 3 hours in Amsterdam--instead of sprinting through ORD.
Note: We have a roundtrip flight to London the end of May. We found that flying out of HSV was about half price of the flights out of BNA--usually the South's more reasonably priced airport.. We might have caught them on a good day, but sometimes alternative airports are better values--with reasonable connections.
Posted by
OP
Birmingham, AL
104 posts
I have flown out of Atlanta before - if you add in the extra time and gas for driving there and back, along with the cost to park a car (we will be gone for 25 days), the flight cost has to be a lot cheaper to make it worth it, and I wasn't finding any deals. - we have a specific time frame we must travel in, and unfortunately it is right at the beginning of summer - peak season. Or, if I could find a better price it was a terrible schedule, either with long layovers, extra connections, or arriving at an inconvenient time.
Add to that we are flying Birmingham to Amsterdam, then returning from Copenghagen. Makes things more complicated, especially if trying to find a reasonable price.
Normally when leaving from Birmingham, I always prefer connecting through Atlanta, but that means flying Delta, and right now, there are no deals to be had from them. (I have been watching for several months now, but no go.) I was also watching prices from Huntsville, but nothing was really that much cheaper.
Anyway, I went ahead and booked the flight and just have to keep my fingers crossed that we don't miss the connection in Chicago, or we will be spending the night there.